


We Were, We Are

by Hexx



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9058117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hexx/pseuds/Hexx
Summary: Matter is neither created nor destroyed, only changed.When a star explodes, eventually parts of it will begin to form a new star.This is the same for Souls.---Negotiating new life when a part of you remembers it's old one. And when part of your soul recognizes old friends.





	1. Poe || Cassian

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends, this fic is a request from tumblr based around a HC I had. The HC can be found here: http://hexx-a-sketch.tumblr.com/post/154739304167/i-cant-stop-thinking-about-rogue-one

Fairy tales for the children of rebellions are war stories. Recollections of survivors of battles hard won and distant memories of fallen comrades. From the knee of his father or in the arms of his mother, Poe heard them all. Without a doubt, his favorite story was the story of the rebel team that brought the Alliance the plans for the Death Star.

For Poe, that was the start of everything. It delivered the plans into the hands of General Leia Organa, to the arrival of Luke and Han and the destruction of the Death Star. It was the catalyst for the Jedi to begin to reemerge in the universe.

He knew their names, had seen them scratched into the wall on the old base on Yavin 4, where his parents had settled down. Occasionally, when he got the chance, he would visit the memorial. Run his hand along the wall of names. Linger upon the name of Cassian Andor.

To Poe, Captain Cassian Andor was his definition of a hero.  Growing up, when he and other children of rebels only understood stories to be stories, they would often reenact the tale of the crew of Rogue One, the battle of Scarif, and Poe would always be Cassian. It felt right, to be him. To play the role the way his parents described it to him. When he got older, wiser, and saw the story for the moment in history that it was he felt the pain of Cassian Andor’s death like a deep ache in his heart.

His parents had known Cassian, though not well. It was harder then, his mother had explained. To know people. They had all been so focused, and nobody was more focused or dedicated to the rebel cause then Cassian had been. He had been a spy, his mother had explained. And was always deeper into things then pilots and ground troops were. He was down in the part of the rebellion that was dirty, the part of war that was dirtier than all the death that lingered on battle fields. Cassian Andor had given his soul to the rebellion long before he gave it his life.

Poe had gone to the memorial and stood there, heart aching in his chest as he really understood for the first time in his life that these people listed on the wall had been real and their story didn’t have a happy ending. They died for something bigger than their lives, for something bigger that they never got to see.

Poe had been twelve.

His father had found him there, and came to stand beside him. Kes ran soothing fingers through his son’s hair as Poe viciously brushed tears from his eyes.

“What happened to them?”

“They died. On Scarif.”

“But what _happened_? Where did their bodies go? What happened to their souls?”

“They became matter, matter that returned to the Universe and the Force.” Kes said simply, soothingly as he wrapped his son in a one armed hug. “They became stardust.”

It was from that point on that Poe felt like something had awakened in him. Something had been stirred to life that had been sleeping for a very long time. Something with a strong sense of self, duty and loyalty that he embraced. Cassian Andor had always been his hero. Now he was determined to become someone who would have earned the Captain’s respect.

“It’s strange.” L’ulo said one day when Poe was sixteen, watching him pull and push against his mother’s old RZ-1 A-Wing he was being permitted to use as he checked it for pre-flight. “You are so like him in some ways.”

Poe looked over his shoulder at his mother’s old friend and blinked slowly, “Like who?”

“Different too, of course.” L’ulo went on as if he hadn’t heard the question. “You laugh more in a day then I think I heard Cassian laugh in the lifetime that I knew him.”

“I wish I had known him.” Poe confessed. There were times when he had wondered what it would have been like if his parents had gotten together just a little bit sooner, had had him when the rebels that made up Rogue One had been alive. But he always set those thoughts aside just as quickly as he had them. Even if he had been around then, he would have been a baby and all contact would have been lost on him. But it was more often than not that Poe had the thought flee him like mercury on a smooth surface. He couldn’t truly imagine meeting Cassian Andor. His brain would not allow him to imagine a world where they were both alive.

L’ulo looked across the hanger to where Kes was talking with some pilots, saw the BB unit that was so fond of Poe that had accompanied him. “It’s mostly the robot sidekick that does it.”

Poe let out a rowdy laugh that attracted said droid’s attention. They watched as it speed across the hanger floor to be at his side.

“I feel like he would have liked me.” Poe says to him conversationally, patting BB-8 with a smile. He craned his neck up from where he was crouched beside the small droid. “As much as he could have liked someone.”

“Everyone like’s you Poe.” His friend said, starting to walk to where Kes and the others were. “You and Cassian would have gotten along.”

 This was why when it came time to decide on a purpose in life, Poe thought about what Cassian would have done if he had been so fortunate to have seen a galaxy at peace. He finally landed on the idea that the captain wouldn’t have been content to just live in peace, he would have wanted to help keep it as well.

So he joined the New Republic Starfleet, because going into military intelligence didn’t suit him. And flying brought him closer to his mother’s ghost, in addition to making him feel an unbridled sense of freedom. Poe strove to be of use to the Republic, until something stirred in him at the ugliness of the First Order and he defected to General Organa’s side with the Resistance. Briefly and in private, he reflected that that was precisely what Cassian would have done too.

* * *

 

Poe’s soul was a strong and vibrant light in the Universe that Cassian knew to be favored by the Force. If he hadn’t been, then Cassian was sure the boy would have developed his less desirable traits as he grew up. In fact it amused him to see just how poor of a liar the boy was, compared to his former existence. The part that belonged to Cassian often lingered on Poe’s feelings for BB-8 and wondered glumly if droids could be reincarnated as well.

It was a strange way to exist, post life. He had been gone for so long after his death, in a place he couldn’t recall exactly before becoming part of Poe’s soul. He missed the others, in a vague and abstract way. He couldn’t recall if he had gone somewhere after death and if they had also been there or not. He couldn’t recall if he chose to be remade in this way or if it had been the Force’s decision.

He and the Force had always been on iffy terms, and he sullenly wondered if somewhere in the vastness of the Universe if the others had been given the same chance as he was. And if they were enjoying it.

Not that Cassian Andor didn’t like being part of Poe Dameron. It was just strange. He felt a strange thrum run through his personal consciousness whenever he heard himself being discussed. And he always felt strange when he stared into Kes and Shara’s faces through Poe’s eyes.

He was Poe, but Poe was not him. And some days it was easier to forget that he had ever been someone else, and some days it was harder. But after the first decade or so, he just let go of his life as Cassian and settled into the parts of Poe’s being that was made just for him.

* * *

 

The part of Poe’s soul that was Cassian Andor recognized the part of Finn that was Bodhi Rook so rapidly and so strongly that he urged Poe’s soul to agree with the trooper’s plan. Regardless of his motivations, because there was no way Bodhi Rook’s soul could have found its way back to him only to do him harm.  

He had never considered finding them again, any of them. And while a small kernel in his existence wished to see Jyn again, he couldn’t deny the thrill of finding Bodhi. And he could not deny Poe the feelings that Finn fostered within him.

Poe had always been different from Cassian in that way, much more open and willing to affection and friendships. While Cassian had regarded really only the crew of the Rogue One with the kind of intensity that Poe seemed to be overflowing with, he was quite surprised to see how that intensity managed to go up another notch when it came to Finn.

All too soon though, it felt like fate was cruel. Like he was being punished in this life time for things he had done in his past one, when Poe awoke in the hot sand of Jakku and Bodhi- no, Finn- was nowhere to be found. The ache and sense of loss within Poe was so intense that Cassian felt quilt, because he knew the part of the boy’s soul that was him was to blame for it. He felt a kind of devastation that he hadn’t felt in what felt like lifetimes.

And he used that feeling to throw the rest of Poe’s soul into survival mode. Drove the boy’s soul and body with a kind of demanding overreaching control that he had never exacted before to get him off the planet and back to the rebel base as soon as possible. And when he finally let go, finally stopped fighting with the rest of Poe’s soul and let the boy have his way again, he felt tired for the first time in years and became dormant within.

* * *

 

The sight of Finn, alive and in his jacket on the rebel base awoke such a violent feeling of joy and care in Poe’s chest that he felt like his whole being might crack in half. He barely noticed how much distance they crossed in their rush to one another’s arms, locked in an embrace before he could really process that he had even intended to hug him.

His face touched the crook of Finn’s neck and a feeling inside of him stirred awake. He barely knew Finn, beyond being a betrayer of the First Order and his savior, which made him more of a Rebel than most. But a part of him felt like he had always known Finn, like they had already made space for one another in their lives.

He couldn’t help the way his blood rushed about his ears, the way his lower lip found its way into a soft bite as he looked at Finn. Couldn’t help the decision that he made, whole heartedly and without hesitation that he loved him.

Just because a lot of his childhood stories had fallen behind as they had become history didn’t mean he had abandoned all their themes. Like hope building rebellions from ashes, and love springing from rescue missions by strangers on enemy ships.

* * *

 

Cassian Andor woke up at the feel of Bodhi’s soul brushing against Poe’s again. And he was shook to the metaphysical core at the intensity that Poe felt in response. The elation bleed with his own and he was elated to see that Finn, and thus Bodhi, had found him once again.

Poe desired a friendship and more from the former member of the First Order, and that desire didn’t seem put off at all by Finn’s stories of the time during their separation. He didn’t even experience a prickle of jealousy as Finn described Rey to Poe. If anything, the vibrant excitement in Finn and the part of the boy’s soul that only Cassian could recognize as Bodhi’s flared in such a way that he felt he needed to know her as well.

Which is why he was pleased with Poe’s need to be a part of the mission to recuse the scavenger girl from the Star Killer base.  He wondered, as Poe and Finn shared a passing look on their way to their assigned positions and he felt Bodhi’s presence brush up against his own, if Finn had an understanding of who he carried inside of him the way Poe vaguely did.

And if he felt a certain pang of memory to the Battle of Scarif when Poe said _"All right, let's light it up!"_ to his squadron as they flew over Star Killer base, he didn’t let it fill the boy with dread. They would be victorious, as he and Bodhi had been victorious then as well. The only difference would be, that he and Bodhi would make it out of this mission alive.

* * *

 

Rey was light, brilliant hope and unbridled strength that practically brought Poe to his knees. He could follow her easily into any kind of situation, and he understood that Finn would too. Understood as he watched her standing beside Finn’s hospital bed why the man had been so insistent that they meet. He walked up to stand beside her in the med bay, the first time they have gotten the chance to actually meet since Star Killer base had exploded into dust in the Universe.

She looked up into his face, recognized him from BB-8’s description and apparently Finn’s fond recollection. Eye’s pierced his and gaze never faltered, even though her very being rocked him to the core. And judging by the way her mouth opened slightly in surprise, in faint recognition that went beyond realizing who he was, she was rocked by him as well.

The part of Poe’s soul that was Cassian Andor was viciously battered by the appearance of Jyn Erso’s soul in Rey’s body. He hadn’t thought she could get any brighter than she had on the shores of Scarif. This is what Bodhi had been trying to convey when Finn had described Rey. Jyn, beautiful and brilliant and fearless standing within the budding Jedi, daring him to be surprised. The girl, Rey, seemed so young compared to not only Poe but the very age of Cassian’s own soul.

Poe’s feelings for Finn were not swayed by Cassian’s affection for Jyn, though he did feel it form in the Poe’s chest as a seed of attraction and curiosity.

Too soon though, he had to see her part. She was to go off in search of Luke Skywalker, to use the map that the three of them had collectively struggled to bring into the hands of the Resistance. He was to stay with the rebellion, with the troops, with Finn. With Bodhi.

In the med bay Rey reached out and took Poe’s hand, and the shock of Jyn’s domineering soul slammed into him with all the fondness he had hoped. It seemed unreal to him that the three of them could be together again, and he hopped with a renewed viciousness that Finn would wake from the coma he was resting in. Cassian could feel how Poe wanted the three of them to touch, the three of them to be. He didn’t understand the feel of Rey’s soul brushing against his own for what it was, but he did understand that the feeling was good and whole.

* * *

 

Poe watched Rey take off in the Falcon from the window in Finn’s room. He recalled how barely a half hour ago they had had their longest interaction. When he had found her in the med bay saying her goodbyes.

“He’ll be asking about you.” He had explained, and Rey had nodded.

“Assure him that I will be thinking of him.” She asked, a hand running over the prone figure’s features. “Promise him that I will be back soon.”

“You’re kindred spirits, you and he.” Poe said conversationally. Rey shot him a curious look, smiling openly when she saw his own smile.

“I feel that is true of him and you.” She replied.

Poe leaned forward conspiratorially, leaning over Finn’s body to rest his forehead just barely against Rey’s. She didn’t flinch away or make a face, just stared steadily back at him.

“Then I guess that means you and I must be as well.”

She laughed, pulling back to do so as he grinned. “BB-8 would probably agree as well.”

“He would be the best judge of character considering he has spent time with all of us.” Poe admitted, trying to sound like the conversation was serious despite the way they were both chuckling. They glanced down at Finn between them and the mood grew somber again. Serious. “I’ll keep an eye on him, I promise I will look out for him.”

Rey touched his arm, drawing around the table to be by his side. “You are a good friend, Poe Dameron. I hope to see you more when I come back.” Poe covered her hand, the one that was pressing against his arm with his own and held onto it for a moment.

“You wore my jacket.” He said softly, looking away from Finn to look at her again. “That makes us friends. I will see you again, Rey.”

He had left her with Finn to say private goodbyes, and felt like a part of his soul had fettered itself to Rey’s in that moment. He would be sure to pass that bit along to Finn when he awoke, because he didn’t think he deserved to hold onto it himself. Now as he saw the Falcon breaking away from the planet's surface, he turned back to the comatose Finn. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this strange, disjointed piece of fiction. I will be delving into the negotiation of Rey//Jyn, Finn//Bohdi in other chapters.
> 
> If anyone else wants to run with this idea, please do. I have so many strong feelings about this idea that I am not sure I an truly do it justice.
> 
> Also, just in case anyone is curious. I did the math and as far as the Force Awakens trio goes age wise, it comes out to: Poe is 32, Finn is 23 and Rey is 19.


	2. Finn || Bodhi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thank you so much for taking an interest in this work and I hope you enjoy it!

He wakes up and does not recall a family. Doesn’t remember the smiling faces with any clarity or find any names tripping off his tongue. He has a strange sense of loneliness despite the full bunks all around him. Some days he wakes up thinking he dreamed of people who cared about him. But those mornings have become less and less frequent as he got older.

FN-2187 Is a model trooper, one that the First Order is proud of. Captain Phasma seems proud, at least. Why else would she hold him as an example to the rest of the cadets in his squadron. Being singled out and praised wasn’t a great thing for FN-2187 Because it made the other cadets resentful. And cruel. All FN-2187 wanted was friendship, a kind word now and again from someone who meant it. Phasma meant it, but only said it to keep them from bonding.

It was a hard, bitter thing. And it kept him feeling even smaller and more insignificant then he already felt he was. After all, you couldn’t have picked him out from a lineup of other cadets if they were all wearing their helmets. So why should he pretend to think that he mattered. That he made any kind of difference to the goings on of the First Order.

But all of this did not stop him from being kind. Nothing, it seems can stop him from showing kindness and trying to form bonds with his fellow cadets. It was like something hard and stubborn in his chest, a fiber in his very being wouldn’t let him be cruel. In his private thoughts FN-2187 called it his conscious. In his lonelier moments, he thought of it as a separate thing from himself, almost like a friend.

* * *

 

Bodhi Rook was fine with being the boy’s conscious, seeing as the boy would never know who he was anyway. It seemed like a laughably cruel joke to him, to wake up after that bomb blast almost exactly where he had started. Serving a dark entity so much like the Empire that he sometimes wondered if the entire ordeal with Galen Erso’s message and the mission to Scarif had been a dream. He rested idly within FN-2187’s soul and wondered if someone else had ever been a part of him like he was part of this boy now.

Bodhi realized early on just how tender FN-2187’s heart was, and how easy his soul would have been to bend if he had tried. But he didn’t. He didn’t want to be another force in the trooper’s life telling him what to do. Sometimes he thought about trying to get the boy to be a pilot rather than a ground soldier. Maybe then there was a chance he could get the boy to slip away into space, and find his own way of life. But he really couldn’t bring himself to do it. What help would he be to the boy out there? Neither of them were equipped for life without orders, had never known such a life. And the one time Bodhi had disobeyed orders…he had died.

 So he and the boy stay on the ground, ending up in sanitation of all places. Which is laughable considering just how good of a trooper the boy is and how great the praise that rolls out of his shiny chrome superior. But FN-2187 seems content in the position. He is good at fighting, good at war in theory. But in the sanitation department he never really has to test it. Never really has to hurt anyone. Which Bodhi can understand, in fact he loves and respects it.

He is glad that if he has to come back to the galaxy, at least he came back to someone as soft hearted as he himself had been. He tries not to dwell too much on his old life, and instead tries to be happy with this new one.

* * *

 

FN-2187 tries to find a reasonable excuse to not be on the mission to Jakku that doesn’t sound like insubordination. Because insubordination would come with a painful and public punishment, and then find him first in line to get off the ship at the targeted village. The first one down the plank and into enemy fire, would make him fodder. So FN-2187 practically scrambles his brain in an attempt to find a reason to stay behind.

“Captain, I am just a sanitation officer, I am not worthy of the honor.” He tries, hoping his humility and self-deprecation will work on Phasma the way they work on some of his less friendly cadet mates. But if she is moved by his comments, he cannot tell. She is wearing her helmet, as she has always been. And he is wearing his, because she despises to see her troops without it. So the humanity of his plea is lost on the black fiberglass eye shield.

“You have only been assigned sanitation duties because of your failings to be harder on your opponents in training.” She said calmly, smoothly. As if she had anticipated him coming to her and trying to get out of this. “This will be the chance for you to do better. I think you will excel in the field, when you are against real opponents. Your desire to not hurt your comrades because they are your comrades is admirable in the sense that it keeps us with fully operational troops. But you are a soldier FN-2187, and it is time you acted as one.”

So he found himself in the middle of the pack as the ship swayed into the atmo of Jakku.

* * *

 

Bodhi Rook had never felt so violently alive within FN-2187’s being as he did when the newcomer was dragged forward and deposited at the feet of the dark and evil mass that is Kylo Ren. Because even at a distance, even though FN-2187’s eyes and the blasted visor that Stormtroopers had to wear, though shadows and darkness and sand blowing in the air:

Bodhi Rook recognized Cassian Andor.

Or at least a part of him, a fraction of him. A brief and shining spark of him that was beating furiously back against the darkness threatening the new him. He heard the snide comment thrown into the face of certain death and Bodhi wondered how much of himself actually showed up in FN-2187 if that much of Cassian was coiled in the body of this new rebel.

Of course Cassian had been rebirthed in a rebel. Of course. Cassian Andor who had been in the fight since he had been six years old would have sued the Force for the right to keep fighting it.

FN-2187 did not shoot the villagers as they stood quaking in a huddle. Did not even touch the trigger once the entire time the blaster had been in his hands. Bodhi wondered if Cassian would be proud of that. But then again he couldn’t really recall pride as an emotion he had ever gotten to see. His preoccupation with his old friend was rendered a dull thought to him as FN-2187 stared blearily at the carnage before him that he could not bring himself to add to. Bodhi was proud of the boy, even if nobody else was. Even if he was putting himself at an enormous risk by disobeying his Captain’s orders.

Bodhi realized as FN-2187 stared Kylo Ren in the face across the sand, that he had a chance to repay an old debt. Once a lifetime ago Cassian had liberated him from torture in sand. He could feel the fear and curiosity that was FN-2187’s own, and he urged the idea of a plan forward into the front of his brain. He would rescue his friend from a torture in chrome.

After all, this was his new life as well. Now he just had a reason to try and exert a little of control over it.

* * *

 

Poe Dameron was breathtaking, even when he was dirty and beat up and eyeing him suspiciously in the tiny hallway they were hiding in. FN-2187 had never had much call for attraction, given how hard a time he had been having trying to create friendships. But this rebel pilot was what he imagined the other troopers meant when they called someone pretty.

A part of his very being felt warm, light at their proximity. There was a strange sense of familiarity there that didn’t belong but he reveled in it. And when their conversation turned easily into a kind of banter, as Poe agreed to be the pilot if FN-2187 could get them to a ship, FN-2187 couldn’t help but feel like this was destiny.

Wherever they would be going, he would have to be going with Poe. The ship couldn’t send them to two different places. Which meant that FN-2187 would be going to the rebellion probably. That scared him, scared him a lot because he had no promises that he wouldn’t be hurt by them like he was hurt by the First Order. But he trusted Poe, trusted in that handsome smile and that sense of familiarity that warmed him.

He wondered if Poe felt it too, if that was why he was so much at ease as they walked through the halls of the Finalizer, sauntered through the hanger bay with his blaster pressed into his side. He knew Poe had to be comfortable with them as they hooted in ecstasy at their escape. And he cemented the notion that Poe was his friend, had always been destined to be his friend, when he called him Finn.

* * *

 

Bodhi wondered why the Force was so cruel. Chirrut had made it seem like such a perfect thing. Like there was order to the world and that it was good. He had been rebirthed inside Finn, and Cassian had been rebirthed inside Poe. That was perfect, clearly perfect because they had somehow managed to find one another again in the vastness of the galaxy.

But apparently the Force was not all good, and was just as cruel as Kylo Ren was. Because the other side of the scale of finding someone is losing them. And now FN- no, Finn- was left holding on to Poe Dameron’s jacket in the hot sands of Jakku as the ship…and their friends…sank into the ground.

Cassian is gone again, buried in a new sandy grave. It didn’t seem fair, to have found him again against all odds just to lose him in the middle of repaying his debts. But then again, Bodhi supposed it was fitting as well. He had never been very good at repaying debts. All of his attempts before had gotten him or others killed. At least it seemed that even in this new life, he was keeping to a pattern.

He let himself slip backwards in Finn’s soul, let the boy be on his way through the sand. Neither of them knew where they were and they really couldn’t do anything other than walk and search and hope. That was Bodhi’s contribution to their life. Nobody in the First Order had taught Finn anything about hope. Everything the boy knew about it he knew intrinsically and without name from Bodhi’s light pressure.

So Bodhi urged him forward on hope and wallowed in the boy’s pain and loss.

* * *

 

The girl and the droid had him flat on his back and he couldn’t say he was afraid. He was more in awe then anything. She was back-lit by a scrap of sun glinting through a rip in the tent above them and her whole being seemed to be on fire. The way she bared her teeth at him as she held him at staff point was easily the most chilling and comforting sight he had ever seen.

The droid was saying something to him, but he didn’t understand it. Couldn’t speak it, and the girl seemed to pick up on that because she translated easily.

It was the jacket, the jacket that had triggered everything. The droid knew it was Poe’s, and that meant this was the droid Poe had been determined to return for. His heart swelled with loss as he shared a moment with the droid, BB-8, as it wheeled itself away to mourn in semi-private.

But then things are happening too fast, too suddenly. He is slipping out his lie about being a member of the Resistance before he can stop himself, he is running along with her through the sand into the ship they are stealing. He is nauseated by the way the girl- Rey – flips the whole ship over itself in an evasive maneuver that he knows from basic training isn’t recommended, ever.

Poe’s droid, BB-8, agrees to get them to the base with only a little bit of convincing.  And then the real adventure begins as they are forcibly dragged into the world of the Resistance by Han Solo and his little escapade with the different crime families.

* * *

 

Jyn Erso’s soul glittered like starlight to Bodhi and he wondered if the Force would take her away too. But he felt how fiercely the girl wanted to live, and how strongly Finn felt for the friendship that had been formed out of necessity. Jyn’s spirit shined out through Rey’s eyes at the possibility of Finn being a member of the Resistance, of searching for a man named Luke Skywalker, and his own impatience jumped out of Finn’s throat as they lied and said they were rebels too. Like Poe.

And granted, Bodhi thought firmly to himself. He had been a rebel, and there were few things more rebellious then breaking a prisoner of war out of space prison and taking off with them. But all the years he had spent not exercising his say and control over his new soul leaves him without much way to help Finn as he digs himself into a deeper hole with his lie . And when Han Solo implies that the girl will know it’s a lie because that’s just the way women are, Bodhi can’t help but think _‘no, that is how Jyn Erso is.’_

But he hopped Jyn’s soul could sense him like he sensed her’s. Hoped she remembered him in some way, though their time alive together had been brief and painful. He suspected she did, by the warmth of Rey’s smile as she looked up at Finn. At the way she tore fiercely through Solo’s ship to save Finn as the nauseating alien attempting to drag him into its mouth. At the way she barely blinked, hardly emoted at all when Finn confessed his lies to Rey.

It stung, when Bodhi realized that he wasn’t going to get to stay with Jyn. And he felt something of a similar pain roll off her soul as Finn and Rey stood close to one another in Maz Kanata's cantina.  But Finn’s desire to go somewhere where he might have peace was not something that Bodhi’s soul could sway.

And so with hesitance, with regret, but still with a hard clutched shred of hope they walked away.

* * *

 

The lightsaber in his hand was unlike anything he had ever imagined. Unlike anything he had ever expected. Finn thought he would have had a harder time using it, holding it. That it would have burned hotter in his hand or the beam would have cracked spitefully into his face. But then, he realized as he faced the man screaming ‘traitor’ at him across the rubble of what had been one of the most beautiful places Finn had ever seen, his only frame of reference had been the angry red blade of Kylo Ren.

He took the hilt of the weapon in both hands and set his jaw firmly. He would not waver.  He didn’t have time to waver, didn’t really have time to look around. Battle was happening around him, Solo and Chewie needed help…somewhere out in the woods Rey needed help.  And it seemed all that training to be a Stormtrooper didn’t go to waste as he managed to do a few maneuvers that Phasma might have been proud of.

* * *

 

Bodhi felt Cassian’s soul slam wholly and fully into his own as Finn embraced Poe. Finn was flush with joy and something else at the sight of his friend alive, well and as a member of the rescue party.  As a former pilot, Bodhi was a little bit envious that Cassian’s soul had wound up in such a good one. But at the same time, he was over joyed.

The men were speaking to one another, standing close and sharing a warm familiarity and joy that left Bodhi buoyed despite the horror of Rey’s capture. Cassian’s soul seemed alive and just as thrilled to sense him, and Bodhi wondered if Cassian had felt the same sharp loss he had when Finn had thought Poe was dead.

Their ability to communicate with one another was lost past sensation and a haze of light. Bodhi couldn’t speak properly, couldn’t flat out say _“I know where Jyn is, we have to rescue her.”_

So instead Bodhi just let his feelings and memories of Jyn radiate from his being and out of Finn as he described Rey, pleading his case to Poe.

* * *

 

Jyn's brilliance at being rescued was surprising to Bodhi. She hadn’t seemed too keen on being saved in her previous life. But maybe it was because of how important someone coming back for her was to Rey that it mattered to Jyn. The feel of her was white hot with relief and abundant affection.

The two rebel souls swelled with new purpose at the mission to destroy Star Killer Base. Bodhi knew from what Han had said that the Death Star had been destroyed, thanks to their intervention, and that renewed his confidence that they could destroy this too.

The Force was giving them a second chance. To stand together once again before an unfeeling government and to cut it down. Cassian was waiting for them, the three of them would get to be together again, and would get to be happy this time.

He hoped. Bodhi Rook hoped and this made him Brave.

* * *

 

Finn’s cold now that Rey has the jacket, but he can’t be bothered. Because their mission is almost finished. The Resistance is waiting for them past this action with new lives and unspoken promise of family. But Han Solo is standing on that bridge over nothing and Kylo Ren is whispering something to him.

And then Han is gone.

Gone in a violent breath of air ripping from his body, from a shrill ring in his ears as Rey screams beside him and Chewie blasts Kylo Ren straight in the gut. They have to go, they must go. But it is painful to flee in the cold, and it is painful to fight against Kylo Ren who is all rage and bloodlust and a kind of cruelty that shakes Finn to his core.

They have to run, and Finn has to be Brave.

The lightsaber wound to his back does burn, does rip his consciousness from him and plunge him down into the dark and snow. He doesn’t know if Rey will be okay, if she will be able to escape across the snow. He thinks she will be able to, if she leaves him behind. He vaguely understands all of Phasma’s insistent lecturing about leaving one another behind to save one’s self. He wouldn’t mind staying behind if it meant Rey could get away.

If it meant Rey and Poe could get away.

* * *

 

Bodhi doesn’t know if he and Finn are dead. He doesn’t think so, because this doesn’t hurt the way it did on Scarif He soothes the rest of the soul that he belongs to, in the dark while he waits for someone to come and find them. Somewhere, in the vague sense of 'nearby' he thinks he can sense Cassian and briefly Jyn. So he does not allow himself to feel despair. He feels alive, and he feels hopeful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edited on 10/12/17 to correct some grammar issues and add a sentence or two here and there


	3. Rey || Jyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a bit longer to write then anticipated. I had a lot of trouble deciding what scenes I wanted to include.  
> I hope you like it though, thanks!

Sometimes the wind over the sand of Jakku sounded like whispers. Particularly at night. Deserts in the dark could get so cold that it could kill, particularly if your home was an old metal machine of fascism. But Rey couldn’t help but creep out of the nest she had made into the evening to listen. It made her feel less alone, to think that the sounds she was hearing across the dunes was a group of people traveling towards her. A family walking towards her like they were coming home.

She knew in other parts of the planet there were villages where people lived communally. Knew that if she really wanted to she could leave the life of a scavenger and the employee of Unkar Plutt to join those communities. She could scavenge for them…fight for them. She liked to think herself a warrior of a sorts when she got the chance. Maybe find someone to help her make a family with.

But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She would let the idea blow away with the night wind and she would crawl backwards into the AT-AT. She had to stay, had to be as close to where she had been left as possible. So that when her parents finally came back for her, like she knew they would, she would be right where they had left her.

Inside the metal of her old ship she listened to tiny bits of sand colliding with the hull. Her simulator was quiet, her breathing was quiet, and she was alone. Rey felt loneliness grip her in a way she couldn’t name and she groped wildly for her hand made rebellion fighter.  She held it tightly in her hand and felt the hard part of her heart soften. The part of her heart that rarely seemed to rest, always hot with anticipation and survival. It cooled just enough as she gripped the doll to allow Rey to slip into sleep.

* * *

 

If she had known that it wasn’t going to last, Jyn Erso would have paid more attention to Rey’s parents. Would have studied their faces more carefully. Memorized them in detail so that she could have helped the girl find them again. Would have spoken up sooner and found a way to argue that there had to be a better way than exile on Jakku.

But Jyn had been too content to be a ghost, a bystander in the new life she had been gifted. Too happy to think that this life with this family was her reward for dying for the Rebel Alliance. Dying in Cassian’s arms while her father’s Death Star bore down upon them and their friends who were scattered along the beaches. Jyn had been too content to quietly sit by and relearn the ways of galaxy through Rey’s eyes and hands.

And while she was bitter at being left behind once again, she saw to it that Rey didn’t suffer. Rey thought of Jyn as merely her own survival instinct, which Jyn supposed she was. After all, while Rey grew into a bright and brilliant girl she still had a gentle kind heart that would have never survived on Jakku without some kind of firm guidance. All the pros of Saw Gerrera’s training with none of the cons were at Rey’s disposal when Jyn made them. She would not let this girl waste away in the sand, since Rey was unmovable in her insistence in staying right where she was.

* * *

 

Rey tumbled down the dune, swearing against the sand as it rushed up to meet her. It scrapped against her skin in a few places as she scrambled for control and finally she was able to dig her knees in just deep enough to halt her descent. Above her another scavenger was sprinting towards her, intent on taking her haul from her.

The hard part of her heart flared up like the sun reflecting off imperial glass. It urged her to wait until the last possible minute and then _roll_. Rey did it without question, missing the heel that the other scavenger had been attempting to slam in-between her shoulder blades. Their balance was off as they slammed their force down hard into sand and they stumbled. Rey grabbed the back of their leg at the knee joint with both hands and _pulled_ , slamming them into the dune.

Her tiny frame was enough to weigh them down as she clambered onto their chest, laying one arm fully across their chest to keep them down. And she reared back with her opposite arm and used her elbow to repeatedly slam into their face until they lost consciousness beneath her. Because she knew with white hot clarity that her elbow was stronger than her fist.

She stumbled to her feet, dizzy still from the fall and rattled from the whole situation. She didn’t recognize the scavenger between her feet, they hadn’t known her either. Had only seen her as easy pickings for an easier days’ work. The hard part of her heart was swelling viciously to take what little the other person had, take it away with her and make it her own. _They had intended to rob you, after all._

But Rey couldn’t bring herself to do it, as she pulled the arm band with their blood off and left it behind. She may have brought them low and possibly put their life in danger considering how hot the sun was beating down on their unconscious body. But she couldn’t take what little someone else had, because clearly their heart didn’t carry the kind of survival instinct hers did. And she wouldn’t be the one who killed them by preventing them from getting some kind of portion to fill a part of their empty being.

* * *

 

Sometimes when the girl is asleep and Jyn is not, Rey’s hand will subconsciously reach up and touch her sternum, searching for the kyber crystal that had hung there in another lifetime. Jyn wondered idly if that was why she had been remade in this way, in this new image. If this new life was just one last gift from her mother, decades and decades after the initial gift had been given. She could never be sure of anything, had never really paid any attention to any talk of the Force before Chirrut, and there hadn’t been any time to really learn from him.

But regardless of the why she existed within Rey now, she just knew that she had a duty to the girl. Which meant that when Rey slept fitfully because of hunger pains in her stomach, Jyn felt like she was failing at her only job in the galaxy. Rey was smaller than she had ever been, and Jyn regretted all the times in her youth with the Freedom Fighters that she had complained about being hungry.

Rey knew hunger, knew it so acutely that hunger was less of a feeling and more of a state of being. The three days she had been trapped inside her AT-AT home due to a violent sandstorm had been destructive. Jyn had felt the hunger pains and worried over them endlessly while Rey distracted herself with the flight simulator. But they had survived, and Jyn had urged the rest of Rey’s personality to work a little bit harder each day they scavenged just to be sure they had at least a quarter portion every night.

* * *

 

Rey was sitting atop the head of her AT-AT, lovingly brushing the day’s accumulation of sand off of Captain Dosmit Ræh’s pilot helmet when she heard the ships breaking into the atmosphere above Jakku. She squints up into the twilight and sees the ships baring down in the distance, dark specks in the sky. They are close to the horizon, where the sky is darkest. They are heading to the far side of the planet where it is already night.

Briefly she wonders if they are going to the outpost or if they are headed towards one of the far flung villages out in the desert. For a singular moment she wonders if it is her parents, finally come to take her to her home.  But she dismisses it as a cold gust of wind throws sharp bits of sand against her skin and she goes into her home for the night.

The next day she manages to scavenge enough scrap for a quarter portion, and after dinner she sits with Ræh’s helmet upon her head enjoying her evening when the beeping starts. There, up over the ridge is a small round droid trapped in a net by Teedo.

It is only later, when she and the droid are together in her AT-AT that she learns about the reality of the ships she had seen the night before. And they leave her with a cold feeling of dread. The First Order sounds so much like the stories of the Empire that she knows, the myths she learned as a child. The droid claims to be part of the Resistance, and Rey can’t help her curiosity.

“Like the Rebels from the civil war with the Empire? Like with the Death Star and Jedi’s?”

The droid, BB-8, swelled proudly under her questioning. And the hard part of her heart was warmed by the idea that she might get to meet a rebel. Anyone who resisted the kind of darkness that the Empire had modeled was the kind of person that she thought she would like to meet.

* * *

 

It was a shame droids couldn’t be reincarnated because part of Jyn thought it would have been funny to see K2SO’s being crammed into the compact frame of BB-8. But that part was small because it was overwhelmed by how much she missed him. Despite how much of an absolute shit he had been to her for the majority of their acquaintance. So Jyn was pleased that Rey took such a firm likeness to the rebel droid. It was familiar, even though they weren’t the same.

But the familiarity she made projected onto BB-8 was nothing in comparison to the familiarity she felt when Rey was standing over Finn at the outpost. Bodhi Rook’s essence stared up at her in utter shock and Jyn imagined she appeared just as surprised. He rippled under the boy’s skin like water, soaked into the new life’s very being. This must be what she was like. Clearly unbreakable a part of Rey…but not  Rey.

Finn claims to be part of the Resistance, and Jyn adds to Rey’s natural climbing excitement. This had to be a sign, had to be the reason she came back to the galaxy the way she did.

So when things went sideways at the outpost and Rey and Finn were tearing up the incline into the garbage ship sitting unattended on the outskirts, Jyn thanked the Force that Bodhi was with her in this. Whatever it was Rey was supposed to do in this galaxy, if she had to be along for the ride it helped to have someone familiar close by.

* * *

 

The rebel boy was a little weird. Flighty and anxious, if she had to label him in the simplest of phrases. But he seemed so gentle and Rey couldn’t help the sense of trust she felt for him. Honestly it was unexpected, considering how things had gone. But she trusted him. Trusted in the way he looked her in the face and smiled at her.

Trusted in the way he trusted her, in her flying and her by-the-seat-of-her-pants wire pulling. In her intuition when it came to timing the door to save him from the Rathtar on the Eravana. If he was so willing to look at her like an old friend and trust her so completely with his life, then she could trust him.

Even if he was flighty.

And honestly it was nice having someone with her who appeared to be just as out of their depth as she was. Because he was just as mystified by the reality of Luke Skywalker, as if he had never stopped to consider he was real. Real like Han Solo clearly was, real like the foundation of the rebellion itself was.

Clearly Finn just hadn’t been a member of the Resistance for as long as he pretends to have been. But Rey found herself not overly concerned with his exaggerations. After all, what was truly important was the dedication to the cause. Not the length of time spent fighting it.

* * *

 

Jyn felt the ache in Rey’s chest as she took in the green of the new world. She herself had forgotten quite how beautiful a lush forest could be, having gotten accustomed to Jakku long ago. The warm butterflies of a future got even more riled up when Han Solo offered Rey a job. A chance to see the galaxy and make a new family.

But as soon as the idea of making a new family entered the girl’s head, Jyn felt Rey shutting it down. Rey was still unwilling to abandon her hope of her family coming back for her, which meant she had to get back to Jakku soon.

Jyn caught a glimpse of Bodhi’s nervous tendencies radiating off of Finn and wondered bitterly if Rey’s stubbornness was her own fault.

* * *

 

Finn was leaving the group. Finn was leaving her. Finn was a liar.

Rey couldn’t find it in herself to be angry. All she felt was sad and surprisingly alone. Somehow she hadn’t considered the fact that she would be separated from Finn. As if she hadn’t considered the fact that he wouldn’t be coming back to Jakku with her or something. She wasn’t sure. But something within her was melancholic at his leaving.

At being left. Again.

Maybe that was it. Maybe the idea of someone she had grown to care about was leaving her behind again. Maybe that was why she couldn’t even be angry with him for lying to her. But lying for the sake of survival wasn’t something she could have really been upset about really. So the lack of angry didn’t bother her, didn’t bother her as much as walking him walk away did.

It was like a part of her that she had just found again was being torn from her grasp too soon.

* * *

 

Touching the lightsaber was like waking up from a long sleep. The violence of the visions that Rey stumbled through shook the girl to the core. And left Jyn feeling disorientated as well. She had never considered the idea of the Force working though the girl. Didn’t know enough about it herself to recognize it in Rey. In herself.

But it explained a few things. While Rey was still reeling from the experience, Jyn was remembering watching people in the outpost and feeling connections to them without reason. Remembers when Rey’s reflexes were just a little too good to be luck but were not from Jyn’s influence. Remembers the voices across the sand that they had dismissed for wind. She remembers and remembers and realizes.

So this is what that was all alone.

But then everything has to crash down around them. The First Order has to find them, here in this paradise. The masked creature with the lightsaber from the vision is suddenly a reality and it is baring down upon them. Rey is unable to move, and unable to fight, and unable to contain the utter terror that is rolling off her in waves.

And Jyn is unable to do anything as Kylo Ren plummets them into darkness.

* * *

 

Finn came back. Finn and Han and Chewbacca all came back for her.  And her heart is ripped open, and her soul is alight. She has Finn wrapped in a hug that she knows must be crushing but it doesn’t matter.

Someone came back for her, and it was all she ever wanted.

The hours spent strapped to that metal table was like a dull ache, practically forgotten. And while the brutal push and pull of Kylo Ren trying to rip the map from her mind was a tender sort of wound that Rey felt might never heal, it was at least briefly numbed.

She had not been left to fend for herself. She had not been forgotten.

She let Finn take her hand and followed Han and Chewbacca out into Starkiller Base. The knowledge that they were on their way to blow up the very ground beneath her feet should have frightened her and given her pause. But she was buoyed by the love she was feeling, growing warm with imaginings of what her future was going to be like as she shrugged into Finn’s beloved jacket to keep herself warm.

Plus, that hard part of her heart seemed to be thrumming with excitement of blowing up a battle station.

* * *

 

Everything is over and strange and different. Jyn can feel how suddenly Rey has changed. Who they were together only days ago is not who they are now. Rey is one with the Force, and the Force is one with her. She is bombarded with it on all sides, feels it like a cool mist on her skin. But beneath this new enlightenment is a turmoil that Jyn can’t help calm.

Kylo Ren had cut down Han Solo. Had tried to cut down Finn and Rey. And when Rey let her eyes close she would find herself standing in the snow over Kylo Ren’s bloody face with the lightsaber in hand and Jyn would wonder again at how her anger hadn’t overwhelmed the girl with a murderous intent.

Because Jyn had wanted blood when Bodhi’s new body had been slashed in the back in the snow. Wanted it so badly that for a moment, Rey had wanted it as well.

But Rey was still soft, still light in a way that Jyn hadn’t been. A muddy colored gray color in the stark black and white contrast of the world.  Particularly in contrast to the sparse and sanitary hospital area. Rey was there to say goodbye to Finn. She had agreed to go on behalf of Leia, the Resistance and herself to find Luke Skywalker. Which meant leaving Finn and Bodhi behind in the Resistance’s care.

It wasn’t something Jyn was looking forward to in particular.

There was the soft hiss of the door opening and Jyn felt all the hairs rise on the back of Rey’s neck. Rey turned and looked at a tired looking man, older than Rey was but kind. Finn and BB-8’s descriptions of Poe Dameron made him identifiable instantly, and Rey was at ease with his entrance.

But Jyn Erso was rocked, unprepared and unable to restrain the pained elation at seeing Cassian Andor’s soul. Her heart practically wept at the sight, looking bright and fresh and well. Cassian was suited to the likes of Poe so well that she loved them both instantly.

Their souls touched when Poe and Rey held hands over Finn, and Jyn felt like she could be reborn all over again. It was like when Rey and Finn touched, letting her soul brush up against Bodhi’s. Here was the soul of the man she died with, alive again. Rey looked at the monitor assuring them that while Finn was unmoving, he was still living and Jyn thanked the Force that they had been so blessed.

That all three of them could be alive and together like this.

* * *

 

Rey trusted Poe Dameron with everything, she decided as she parted from him. The feel of his forehead against her own warm still.

He had said they were all kindred spirits. She knew this in her heart…in her soul…to be true. While she worried for Finn’s health, she was at ease now with leaving him behind. Poe wouldn’t let anything happen to him, the pair of them would be safe and together when she returned.

And Rey would return…with Luke Skywalker in hand and with a better grasp of the Force. The Resistance had come back for her, she would come back for it.

This was her family now. And she knew where to find them, always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edited on 10/12/17 for grammar and spelling errors


	4. Then || Now || Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I have finally finished the conclusion to this story, which took me far longer then I originally anticipated it taking. But surprising absolutely nobody, it's actually pretty hard to write a chapter that incorporates six different points of view. ANYWAY, thank you for anyone who waited for this conclusion, and thank you to anyone who has read this story at all. I truly appreciate it. Enjoy!

Poe is there when Finn wakes up. It appears to be a matter of chance, but the reality would be closer to a matter of feeling. Deep within the twists of the rebel base Cassian felt Bodhi stir close to the surface. And now it seemed that any thought Cassian had of _Bodhi_ translated instantaneously into Poe’s subconciousness as _Finn_.

So when Finn opened his eyes, Poe happened to be standing at the side of the bed. Happened to be there adjusting the sparse items on the short table beside the bed as if keeping the area dust free was his job. Happened to be the first thing that Finn heard and saw and felt as Poe leaned down over him and pressed his forehead to his, grasping his hands hard enough to turn the knuckles white.

And Cassian and Bodhi’s souls bumped easily against one another with warmth, both releasing  a heavy tension that they hadn’t realized they had been carrying.

* * *

 

Rey contacted the Resistance the very next day. And after a very long talk with the General and other Resistance leaders regarding her whereabouts and Luke Skywalker that was conducted entirely behind closed doors, she managed to earn a private conversation with Finn. And Poe, by extension, because he was finding all kinds of excuses to be in the medbay these days and Finn didn’t even think about asking him to leave when General Organa had placed the holopad gently in his lap.

“I felt it.” Rey whispered excitedly from lightyears away, her eyes extra bright due to the interference from the Falcon’s aged coms set up. “I felt it when you woke up, it was the Force.”

Her training had been substantial and varied. Being a Jedi was about much more than violently dragging things from your opponents mind and being able to arch a lightsaber in a circle. It was a lot of quiet moments of centering and meditation. It was a lot of listening to the very edges of the Universe and doing as it said. Moving when it said to move despite not being able to see. Avoiding sharp little jolts of electricity from that orb thing Finn had managed to find when trying to provide medical aide to an unhappy Chewbacca.

Poe looked amused and watched with a silent smile while Finn and Rey talked excitedly about the Force. In a sense Finn was considered by most of the Resistance as some sort of Jedi himself, one that just hadn’t gotten to start training yet due to his injuries.

Rey assured Finn that Luke would answer any questions he had when they returned to the Resistance. Whenever that would be. Nobody really broached the question of when that reunion would happen, but when the communication finally had to be ended she smiled at both men and beamed, promising to see them both _soon_.

From the inside of the Falcon, Jyn did her best to study their faces. She couldn’t see Cassian or Bodhi through the screen and doubted they could see her. But she knew they were there. Could sense them in the wrinkling of skin around Poe’s eyes and the open way Finn smiled. She wondered as Rey lilted heavily back in the seat in casual repose if they could see parts of her in the girl’s face as well.

She wholeheartedly hopped so.

* * *

 

Poe helped Finn get back on his feet, eased him through physical therapy with one warm hand wrapped around his elbow and the other on his shoulder. He showed Finn the base in far grander tour then had been afforded before the mission to Starkiller Base. They ate in the mess together, with BB-8 trundling back and forth between their legs, occasionally causing them to knock their knees together sharply. And  Finn got to meet the members of Poe’s squadron, who all exchanged knowing looks that both men missed.

Though Bodhi caught them, and Cassian did too. Shimmering beneath the surface of their new bodies, they saw the looks, and exchanged a few of their own as well. Cassian looked mildly embarrassed at first, but after Bodhi’s smiles and expressions of amusement, he too warmed to the sensation. Bodhi cackled at Cassian’s raised eyebrows and pleased smirk when Poe gently laid the newly repaired but still ridiculously beat up brown and red jacket upon Finn’s shoulders. But both of them grasp the scene as the kind of tender show of companionship that neither of them had gotten to have during their own lifetimes.

Poe’s hand grazed Finn’s as they squeezed through a narrow door on their way to a meeting with General Organa and Cassian and Bodhi lit up with a summer’s heat.

* * *

 

The reunion was public and affectionate and would have embarrassed the whole lot of the Rogue One crew had it taken place during their lifetimes. While Bodhi may not have minded being wrapped in a hug in front of all the other rebels, Jyn and Cassian would have been at least a little bit mortified.

But that sort of thing didn’t bother Finn or Poe or Rey. And when she sprinted away from the Falcon, leaving her travel companions in the dust the only thing any of them cared about was that this wasn’t a hologram. Rey and Finn collided in a way that almost took the pair to the ground, had Poe not been trailing so closely behind to steady them. Her fingers dug savagely into the leather of his coat and he lifted her off the ground with his arms around her waist. Poe remained on the fringes like a moon in orbit until one of Rey’s hands let go of Finn’s shoulders and reached for him. Drew him forward so that Finn’s back pressed into his chest and her forehead bumped against Poe’s nose. And Poe laughed and Rey laughed and around them some of the older rebels who had seen a lot of death and a lot of pain laughed as well.

This kind of reunion was the kind of thing the Resistance was fighting for.

And the souls of Rogue One flared like a body with a fever against one another, tangling and pulling and existing. It was strange and unexpected and they looked at one another with bemused expressions on their faces when the cluster was finally split apart by General Organa’s amused but practical throat clearing to remind them that the Falcon had come baring other living cargo that deserved attention.

* * *

 

Luke Skywalker was not Chirrut like Bodhi had secretly hoped, but considering Luke had destroyed the Death Star only days after Rogue One had met their end on Scarif it wasn’t too hard to accept. But he did have the same kind of feel to him that clung to the fabric of everyone he spoke to. And Bodhi was certain that when he looked upon Finn and Poe he saw Cassian and Bodhi there. Though he didn’t draw attention to them beyond a knowing and respectful nod that made Bodhi feel like he was tingling.

One day while Luke was testing Finn to see if he had made any development with the Force, Luke paused and looked at Bodhi for a moment. Not Finn, who was standing right in front of him, but at Bodhi who lingered like a shadow just a little farther behind. At least that is what it felt like, because suddenly Bodhi was filled with the uncomfortable sensation of being watched that he hadn’t felt since his life ended.

“Did you know my call sign when I was a rebel pilot was Rogue Leader?”

“Yeah?” Finn asked, never taking his eyes off the practice sword that had been fashioned for his use that he was trying to will towards him. With the number of lightsabers on hand numbering exactly two, and since Finn showed less natural ease with the Force, he made due.  “What for? I don’t really understand how they assign call signs.”

“I picked it.” Luke said with a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes, probably because his eyes were still fixed in Bodhi’s direction. “It was homage to the rebels that had come before me, and cleared the way for the Alliance.” If he expected a response from Finn, he didn’t wait around for it. He just placed his metal hand on the young man’s elbow to adjust his stance and then breezed out of the room without another look back.

Bodhi felt vibrant and strangely vindicated at the information Luke had shared, vindicated by the idea that maybe he himself was not remembered but the sacrifice was. The sacrifice was and the last minute panicked call sign he had thrown into the universe was memorialized. He wondered where Luke’s comments had come from, if he had seen him and recognized him and decided to show his old dead soul some kindness.   

Rey mentioned in passing something about Force Ghosts and how one day if she trained long and hard enough she would be able to see them.  Like Luke did. And Bodhi had never once before considered himself a ghost, let alone a ghost with any kind of relationship to the Force, but it was an interesting thought. And he wondered what Rey would make of him when ‘one day’ came.

* * *

 

Jyn spent a great deal of time studying Poe Dameron through Rey’s eyes. He was much less guarded and much more open then Cassian had been. But she saw Cassian in the fierce smile whenever Poe talked about the cause they were fighting for and the way Poe’s eyebrows eased together in a look of fondness whenever BB-8 beeped excitedly at him.

And of course she saw Cassian whenever Rey let her hand trail off Poe’s X-Wing and onto Poe himself. Dark and brooding but positively beaming, as if still in shock at having found her again against all the odds of the universe.  It was the same look she saw him give Bodhi across the hanger whenever Finn came searching for his friends. As Poe’s hand rested between Rey’s shoulder blades and steered her towards their companion Jyn let her head turn and press into the figment of Cassian that was beside her.

* * *

 

Finn kissed Poe first, but Cassian was sure it was due to Poe’s reverse psychology. After all he could feel the way Poe’s heart had started hammering before he had even fully formulated the sentence : “What about a kiss for luck?” in that cocky tone of his. Cassian knew how Poe felt about Finn, about how he didn’t act beyond his usual flirting because Finn was just now getting the hang of having individual rights and because he strongly suspected that Finn had a thing for Rey. And yet Poe couldn’t help the little flare of hope that accompanied the off handed joke as they stood in the hanger beside his X-Wing one morning before a scouting run.

Rey and Jess had stopped their quiet conversation a few feet away to covertly watch the situation, and the pause that Finn took barely counted as a hesitation. There was a bit more force in the closed mouth kiss then Finn probably intended as Poe gave a slight, surprised stumble. And when Finn pulled away Cassian could physically feel how hard Poe’s heart was pounding and how wide open in surprise his mouth was.

Jessika Pava bolted across the hanger, abandoning Rey and their conversation with quick apologizes and the explanation of needing to tell the rest of the squadron _right now_ that she was right and they owed her. And while Poe regained his composure, sans the ridiculously goofy smile he was wearing, Cassian got a good look at how bright red Bodhi had become.

“That was what you meant, right?” Finn asked, suddenly looking embarrassed. He looked briefly towards Rey for help but she gave him an unhelpful shrug and made a face at him that perfectly illustrated the fact that the only other person on the base with less of a handle on proper social interactions was herself. And Cassian couldn’t see Jyn anywhere nearby except in Rey’s expression, perfectly imitating the look of confusion and innocence she used to shoot K2 when he questioned her behavior.

Poe gave a breathless laugh and stepped up, hands on Finn’s shoulders and gave him a brief but gentle kiss in response before swinging up into the X-Wing.

* * *

 

Rey and Luke were doing slow dance like movements on some thick mats in a little training room that the Resistance had allocated them. Poe sat on the floor with his back pressed against the wall, Finn’s head pillowed on his thigh while he studiously read through a holopad. BB-8 rolled in and out of the room, trying to appear casual as it occasionally came to a quiet stop besides R2-D2.  Poe chuckled at his droid before watching Rey again.

Luke insisted she keep her eyes closed during these exercises, though he kept his own open to observe her form. Skywalker seemed to carry a serious and sad heart, and Poe had rarely seen him smile in pure joy rather than polite praise. The only time had been his reunion with his sister, and that had quickly had become tainted by their mutual grief.

It seemed like Luke had loved Han just as much as Leia had.

But now Poe realized that the old Jedi’s gaze was fixed upon himself, and Poe couldn’t help but tense. Several times he had protested to Finn that he shouldn’t come to their training sessions, he didn’t have any Force abilities and he was too old and would just be a distraction. But Finn insisted he be there when he had the time and Rey always looked happy to see him. And Luke had never said anything about it, just looked at him with his doleful expression and a polite smile. But as he was being studied now, Poe was sure he was finally about to be given the boot.

“Finn, it is time for our meditations.” Was all Luke said instead, settling on the mat while Rey took her place beside him. Finn got up, leaving the holopad on the floor with Poe and sat across from Rey. As Poe started to collect himself to make a hasty retreat, he made eye contact with Skywalker again.

“It helps me with my headaches.” He said conversationally, settling his robes around him. And when Poe looked accusatorily at Finn and Rey he realized that Luke hadn’t actually spoken. The panicked gaze returned to the older Jedi who at least had the decency to look apologetic.

“If it would make you feel better,” Luke said out loud this time, “We could consider this a support group for all the things my nephew has hurt.”

Poe was surprised to hear Skywalker take ownership of Kylo Ren in that way. The General did sometimes, but never with such casual tone. And he found himself making his way across the mat and settling cross legged on the floor in front of Luke. His knees bumped into Finn and Rey’s as he closed the circle they had started to form.

“I…I don’t know how this works.” Poe said sheepishly. Luke just smiled warmly at him.

“Finn couldn’t hold still for more than a few moments the first time he tried.” Rey whispered from his side, giggling when Finn made an affronted noise of betrayal.

* * *

 

The majority of Rey’s Jedi training was lost on Jyn. She knew it was more intensive then Finn’s because Rey showed a much stronger and intuitive connection to the Force, and because Finn’s interest was heavily divided by being actively useful to the Resistance whenever possible. Which meant a lot more time alone with Luke, a lot of time traveling away to train in different locations to help her focus. To open her up to the Force.

Which really left Jyn with nothing to do but exist in the vacuum of Rey’s life. Watching, and occasionally offering her reserve stamina from her days trekking through semi-deserted planets with no food for who knows how long with Saw.

One day while the pair was climbing towards one of the old Jedi Temples that Luke had found over the years he paused on the cliffside and looked out over the beach below. Rey passed him, walking a few more yards ahead before stopping when she realized he hadn’t started moving again.

“We will look for kyber crystals soon.” He said simply.

“Here?” Rey asked, squinting into the distance.

“No, but soon. We will take Finn with us.” Luke resumed his climb, and Jyn felt a tingle spiral down her spine at the memory of her mother’s necklace. She knew the shadow of it still hung around her specters neck, but she still missed the physical weight of it. “You will both construct your own lightsabers one day, and we will need the crystals for that.”

“What do they look like, are they gemstones?” Rey asked as she let her master catch up to her so she could walk at his side.

“They are beautiful stones that are particularly adept at harnessing the Force. Known as living crystals. They are what power the lightsaber, and it is part of a Jedi’s learning to select their own.”

“So if I wanted a green lightsaber like you have then I need to find a green crystal?” Rey asked, sliding her foot along wet stone for no reason than to marvel at the moisture. After a lifetime on Jakku she found herself always distracted by how some places had an abundance of water.

 Luke made a soft laugh and Jyn saw the way his shoulders lifted in a shrug under his heavy robe. “The crystals are clear until they are taken by a Jedi. I was never really able to uncover proper readings as to what makes them change their colors. I imagine it has something to do with the Jedi and their relationship with the Force.” after a long pause Luke added, conversationally “But they are lovely to look at, even when they are clear stones. And they can make beautiful jewelry.” Luke cast a sideways look at Rey and Jyn swore he was wearing as close to a smirk as he was able. “Maybe you and Finn will make a gift for Poe.”

Jyn felt the way Rey puzzled that one over, considering some of the conversations she and Finn had had regarding Poe.  But Jyn couldn’t help but feel a burn at her sternum where her own crystal sat, a kyber necklace for her was a symbol of love. And she couldn’t help but feel like Luke knew that about her.

* * *

 

Jyn and Cassian and Bodhi missed one another fiercely whenever there was cause for Rey or Poe to be away. They felt a little less bright and a little less present in their new bodies personalities when they went too long without seeing one another. Which meant that they exercised the bit of influence they had over the living parts of themselves to draw the three together whenever they could.

Which wasn’t very difficult considering that Poe and Finn were together. And Rey was there with them generally always when she wasn’t off doing her training. Which meant that when Luke took Finn away to train Rey would sit herself on the wing of Poe’s ship and talk to him about flying. Jyn’s soul burning a hole of light against the dark paint job of the ship, while Cassian leaned against the hull below her.

“I love flying.” Rey said wistfully while Poe dragged a rag over his dirty hands. “Luke has all these stories from flying X-Wings during the war with the Empire and I think he misses flying too.”

“It’s hard not to fly once you’ve flown.” Poe agreed. Cassian made an amused noise and looked once again to Jyn. But like always, his sounds were heard by him alone and all Jyn could register was the way his body rocked gently at the snort.

Attempting to communicate was not going as well as any of them had anticipated. As fragments of souls they didn’t have much of a voice. And their different accents meant the way their mouths moved when speaking made lip reading a bit tricky. Plus, they weren’t even always visible to one another. Sometimes it would be a fraction of a second, one of them seemingly photo imposed over top of their new bodies. Or standing just behind. Always haloed and glowing in some bizarre way.

“Have you gotten to go up in an X-Wing yet?” Poe asked, and when Rey shook her head he laughed loudly. “Is that why you’ve been courting Pava, to get her to loan you her ship?”

“I am not courting her!” She said back, rolling with laughter. Cassian noticed Jyn had fixed the pair of them with a particularly smug look that he couldn’t parse out.

“She’s the only one you whisper with.” Poe insisted with a teasing grin. Rey leaned down, hands gripping the wing tight so she didn’t fall as her forehead brushed his.

“I whisper with you and Finn plenty, what do you make of that?”

Poe’s grin twitched at the corners but he didn’t let it fall. His face was warm and his heart was thudding and it was like meeting Rey in the medbay for the first time all over again. “Well that doesn’t count, we’re kindred spirits.”

“I wore your jacket.” She said softly, easing off the wing and to the ground. Poe made to take a half step back to give her space but he stilled when she followed.

“You and Finn both wore my jacket.” He conceded. Then with a thoughtful pause he added, “Well it’s mostly his jacket now. He’s the only one who wears it.”

The closer Poe and Rey stood the more Cassian and Jyn could feel one another. Their skin prickled with heat and contact. Jyn was looking more and more pleased with something going on with Rey that Cassian couldn’t interpret, and he was a little distracted by Poe’s own internal turmoil.

It isn’t clear who kissed who, but it seemed like as soon as it happened Finn was ducking under the X-Wing’s wing and joining them in the little hidden alcove of the hanger. Bodhi’s soul trailing behind like a comet tail before joining the cluster of Jyn and Cassian.

Rey didn’t speak, didn’t address anything. Just turned tightly in the circle of Poe’s arms and drew Finn in, kissing him before hugging around his shoulders. Poe’s arms were trapped around Rey’s waist as Finn stretched forward to hold both of them in his hug. And as if they had done it a hundred times already, Finn tilted his head around Rey’s shorter one and kissed Poe.

“You two planned this, didn’t you?” Poe asked after a moment, when he finally had to break the hug because he was losing feeling in his fingers.

“No.” Finn said softly, still holding Rey against him while she seemed lost in thought. Or the Force, it was hard to tell sometimes where she went. Then after a moment he coincided with a partial shrug, “I mean we might have talked about it in passing. But this very moment, no. But I felt it happening.”

“Is it okay?” Poe asked softly, aware that this could be something that ruins them as friends.

“Feels pretty okay.” Finn said with a bright grin that made Poe’s heart skip a beat.

“Does this mean I get to fly your ship?” Rey asked suddenly, forcing Poe to have to sit down on the floor to keep from passing out due to how hard he was laughing.

* * *

 

Jyn enjoyed the fact that they were all just about the exact same height now. Cassian didn’t comment on it because he refused to dignify her teasing with a response. Besides, the teasing and the brooding didn’t matter when Poe would lean over the edge of his X-Wing to give Rey a kiss goodbye before a mission and their souls would touch. Brush up against one another and feel like they were on fire.

Poe kissed Finn often, soft and short pecks on any bit of surface area he could reach as he rushed from one end of the base to the other. And Finn just generally touched them all a lot, fingers tapping against knees as they sat in the mess hall as if he were drumming on a counter top. And with each interaction there was a flair of togetherness among the spirits of Rogue One.

Their communication was entirely non-verbal for a long time. They would see one another just under the surface of their new beings, a glowing light rippling against the skin there. Sometimes Jyn thought she saw Bodhi standing to the side of Finn, looking over his shoulder like a ghost to see what he was doing. And Cassian indicated once through a series of gestures that he saw something similar with her and Rey. But unless they were urging some sort of response out of their new body’s mouths that might not always make sense to the living parts of themselves, they couldn’t speak.

But they were content. Or at least Bodhi hopped they were all content. There was no real way to know. But they all glowed a bit warmer in proximity to one another, and they stared across the gaps with intensity and awe and love. And when their living bodies touched, brushed a hand against one another or a quick kiss was exchanged, they positively burned.

The touch of one soul against the other was like a warmth that spread through every particle of them. Like an intense electric thrum through their nervous systems. As dizzying as it was to Jyn, Cassian and Bodhi it was delicious and pleasant to Rey, Poe and Finn. The warmth and butterflies made them feel special and whole in a way that the three of them craved. So they touched often. 

Much to the delight of everyone involved.

* * *

 

The whole sharing a bunk thing wasn’t an immediate step that the trio thought to take. Rey was away so often with Luke learning the ways of the Force, and Poe had assignments and missions of his own. Finn was generally left behind but he didn’t seem to mind it because he was getting very close with General Organa. She seemed determined to make a leader of him yet, and Finn was just determined to be worthy of the cause.  And he had the occasional Jedi training as well. 

And then one day Poe was placed on leave. It was apparently overdo, and Leia was insisting that he take it after everything that had happened. After Jakku and the torture and Starkiller base and the way the Resistance had been constantly handing out missions since the explosive destruction of the New Republic. Poe finally agreed, planning on staying at the base and just idling about until Luke got involved.

“Take them with you.” The old Jedi said one day, standing beside the X-Wing and admiring the upgrades that had been made since the last time he had flown.

“What do you mean?” Poe asked, watching the way Luke’s metal hand ran tender and reverent patterns across the painted symbols.

“Leia says you were born on Yavin 4.” Luke said, as if he hadn’t heard the question. “I remember Yavin 4, though I wasn’t there for very long. The Rebel bases changed to Hoth very quickly after the destruction of the Death Star.” Luke paused then, and gave Poe an amused look. “Thank you for that, by the way.”

“Thank you for what?” Poe asked, but again Luke pretended not to hear him. But the praise still set a warm and positive ripple through his body that touched the part of Poe that always felt older than it should.

“Rey should see more of the universe. So should Finn. They have both gone so long seeing so little.” Luke turned away from the X-Wing finally and looked fully at Poe. “And you should see your loved ones.”

So Poe and Finn and Rey packed their things onto the Falcon, and watched Chewbacca wrap a long furry arm around each one of the Skywalker twins shoulders as they took off. The General rested her hand atop the large paw on her shoulder, and Luke just sagged under the weight, grateful to have someone to lean on.

“You can co-pilot.” Rey said, taking her seat in Han’s old chair. Poe sank into the seat beside her and they exchanged amused looks at the sound of Finn doing up every buckle on the seat behind them.

* * *

 

Jyn hadn’t known she had been posthumously made into a Sargent in the Rebel Alliance. But there the rank was, scratched into the memorial wall of Yavin 4. Rey’s hand had gravitated to the name like a magnet pull. And Jyn hadn’t cried since her rebirth but she cried now.

Finn was equally fascinated by the names on the wall, lingering on Bodhi Rook’s name with a care and tenderness that was bringing the actual Bodhi as close to tears as Jyn was. Cassian looked distressed at first but he seemed to understand. Living here with Poe for so long, he had had a long time to get used to being remembered. Neither of them had ever thought that anyone would remember who they were, a cargo pilot defector and a criminal drifter with an officer of the Empire for a father.

“Who were they?” Rey asked finally, softly. Poe had been tracing the slope of the A in Cassian’s last name absently. They had been on Yavin 4 for three days before he took them to the old base, having first combed through every photo and story Kes Dameron could provide of Poe in his childhood. Rey and Finn’s childhoods had been so nonexistent that they savored every example of Poe having one.

But now they were alone in the former base, which was half overtaken by plant life at this point. It wasn’t suitable really for the Resistance to use it as a base anymore given how well known it was. And Poe didn’t let himself dwell on playing with Ben here when they were children. It had become more of a temple and memorial then anything else, and Poe drew them away from the wall of honor and deep into the tunnels to where the barreks had once been.

There was a room there that had once belonged to his parents, and Poe had maintained it in a way that was suitable for living in brief overnight burts. And the three of them softly piled onto the larger than usual cot and easily adjusted to hold one another. For some reason this felt serious, like this story was going to be life altering in a way that none of them could focus on. And while Finn rested his head on Poe’s shoulder and Rey fitted her head against Poe’s ribs, Bodhi and Jyn were tangling themselves together and still crying, while Cassian sheltered them in his arms as best he could.

“They called themselves Rogue One.”

* * *

 

If Cassian had known sooner that he could see and hear and touch the other two when the living parts of themselves were all asleep and touching, he would have urged Poe to bring up cohabitation a lot sooner. As it was, when Rey and Finn and Poe had finally fallen asleep in the bunk on Yavin 4 after the retelling of the desperate struggle to obtain the Death Star plans he had felt just as worn out as the rest.

It wasn’t easy hearing someone talk about him in a way that sounded like praise, not when he still harbored such guilt for all the things he had done. All the lives he had taken in the name of the Rebellion.

But all his exhaustion melted away when for the first time in decades he heard Jyn speak.

“He told it a little nicer then I remember it.” She mumbled, clearly talking to herself. Cassian opened his eyes and found himself in the all-white void that he sometimes found himself trapped when Poe was asleep or hurt or otherwise blocking him out.  Jyn was sitting nearby, eyes still bright from her earlier tears but no longer sobbing.

“Jyn.” Her name was a breathy prayer and it clearly startled her. Her image twisted to face him, reaching instinctively for a blaster that she didn’t have as she realized for the first time he was there.  From his other side came a soft sob and they both looked to find Bodhi laying there, hands pressed to his face.

“Do you know how strange it is?” He asked with a watery smile. “Strange it is to feel Finn love me, the idea of me? And not realize I’m him.” He rolls onto his side, less surprised to see them as he was bogged down by the feelings he was experiencing by proxy. “I think right now Finn loves me, the Empire defector, more then he loves himself.”

Cassian scrambles over to Bodhi, and feels Jyn collapse against his back as she follows suit. They are both solid weights against him, alive and warm but not burning like star matter. Cassian felt a sob of his own forming deep in his chest, but it was hard to get it out with the way Jyn was pressing hard against him. Bodhi made a distressed noise from the bottom of the dog pile that triggered a round of shocked laughter in them all. So they adjusted until they were all sprawled across the floor of the void beside one another.

“Force.” Cassian swore, running a hand through his hair.

“I have missed that accent.” Jyn said amongst her softening giggles.

“I have missed you.” Bodhi said, sitting up on his elbows. “Missed you both.”

“Is this typical, is this our reward?” Cassian asked, looking to Jyn.

She shrugged “Luke hasn’t said anything of the sort in Rey’s training. Though he looks at me sometimes, not Rey but me.”

Bodhi chuckles. “He does that to us all I think.” He laid himself flat against the ground again, settling into the surprise. “I hope Baze and Chirrut have managed to find one another.”

“Knowing them they have found one another years ago and have already been having these nighttime conversations for a lifetime.” Jyn said dismissively, her hand sliding across the ground to tangle with Cassian’s. She rolled into him, pressing a kiss to his mouth.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for that.” He mumbled against her skin. She laughed, and shoved at his shoulder. Cassian rolled towards Bodhi and drew him closer as well.

* * *

 

Luke Skywalker looked pleased at the end of the ramp to the Falcon as he watched them all disembark. BB-8 careened past him down the incline towards the other side of the hanger where C3PO and R2-D2 were idling.

“The three of you appear to be much more in sync.” He commented, smiling brighter then Poe thought he had seen him before. He didn’t know if it was because he was warming up to Poe or if just being among the cause again was breaking him free of the solitude he had imposed upon himself for so long.

“Were we ever out of sync?” Finn asked, dropping the bags to the ground and reaching to hug his Jedi Master. Rey took a hug for herself once Finn had moved, and Poe clasped Luke’s offered hand in greeting.

“There were some parts of the Force circling around you that needed to become properly aligned.” Was all Luke said, cryptic as ever. “You should all report to General Organa before you put your things away. Otherwise you will find yourself walking in on new people in your old rooms.”

“Our rooms have been reassigned?” Poe asked, stilling. It wasn’t protocol to make changes when people were on leave like that. For a moment he wondered what could possibly be wrong, what could they possibly be in trouble for. But Luke just gave him that pleased look again.

“Two of the rooms would have been going to waste anyway considering your new habits.” And with that he breezed away, cape billowing behind him with a touch of drama that seemed almost comical in the mostly empty hanger.

The three of them stood silently side by side, watching him go. Finally, with a bit of unease Poe asked  
“How does he do that?”

The two young Jedi shrug awkwardly beside him, considering it. Finally, with a strange bit of amusement in his tone Finn said “He’s one with the Force…and the Force tells him everything.”

Poe snorted, before leaning over to kiss him.

* * *

 

There was star matter from Scarif that scattered across the galaxy and clung tightly to the fibers of the Force. It created new life out of old ones, but still let the old ones linger behind.


End file.
